Image caption
Despite having seven references to Rock, Cornwall, the bottles are made in Burton-upon-Trent

One of the UK's best selling bottled ales, thought by many people to be from Cornwall, is not brewed in the county at all, it has been revealed.

Despite its Cornish branding, bottles of Sharp's Doom Bar have been made in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, for the last two years.

Only the cask version is made at the main brewery site in Rock, Cornwall.

Sharp's, which is owned by US company Molson Coors, said it did not have the room to bottle the ale at Rock.

The labels on bottles of Doom Bar contain seven references to Rock Cornwall, but none to Burton-upon-Trent, but the small print reads "brewed in the UK".

Burton-upon-Trent is 267 miles away from Sharp Brewery's home in Rock.

'Utter con'

Former publican Chris Parsons said: "I assumed it was made from the local waters. I wouldn't buy it anymore and think it is a complete and utter con."

Molson Coors bought Sharp's in 2011. Measured by value of sales, Doom Bar is now the most popular bottled ale in the UK.

Liz Fletcher, landlady of the Devon and Cornwall Inn, said: "I can kind of understand it because Doom Bar is now so so huge and so so popular we're limited with space and logistics in Cornwall."

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Sharp's said cask Doom Bar was still made in Cornwall

Sharp's spokesman James Nicholls said: "We have been established in Rock since 1994 and the majority of Doom Bar, more than 80% or about 1m pints a week, is brewed at Rock.

"But we do complement that with brewing operations further afield and that is the spirit of collaboration that we've seen in the brewing market places where beer is brewed under licence in other locations.

"We are using the expertise of specialist operations further afield to make sure that product is a good as it can be. Doom Bar is brewed in Rock and was conceived in Rock and we are very proud of that."

Doom Bar is named after a sand bank at the mouth of the estuary of the River Camel next to Rock, famed for being treacherous to ships.